PodSearch

Connected

347: Friendship Ended with Shelf

 

00:00:00   [Music]

00:00:08   From Relay FM, this is Connected, episode 347.

00:00:13   And today's show is brought to you by Membeful, Pingdom, and ExpressVPN.

00:00:17   My name is Stephen Hackett, and I am joined by Federico Faticci. Hi Federico.

00:00:22   Hello, I'm Myke Hurley.

00:00:23   Hello Myke Hurley. And everyone's confused. No Stephen today.

00:00:27   If you have the regular version of connected, I think he's going to be showing up in the ads

00:00:31   If you don't want to hear Steven go to get connected pro.co and you can sign up for connected pro

00:00:38   And you won't have to hear Steven or ads

00:00:40   That is the strangest upsell

00:00:43   That is the strangest upsell that I've heard from connected pro so far

00:00:46   I know, I just went down that route

00:00:48   It felt good at the time so I stuck with it. We do have some follow-up

00:00:53   All right.

00:00:54   Apple has attempted to clarify support for Apple Lossless and which devices will work

00:01:01   and how they'll work. I feel like I understand it less. Are you able to provide any more

00:01:06   details?

00:01:07   Well, this is the kind of support document where it kind of goes like this. So people

00:01:12   have a question. So will Hi-Rez Lossless and Lossless be supported on iOS devices without

00:01:20   or like will it be supported on HomePod?

00:01:23   And Apple was pretty much, yes.

00:01:26   Like this support document is more confusing,

00:01:29   like confuses things more than before.

00:01:31   I don't know.

00:01:32   - I feel like it's like, you know,

00:01:32   I do this sometimes when you say something

00:01:36   and you put a question mark,

00:01:37   but in brackets, like in parentheses,

00:01:39   that's kind of how it feels.

00:01:40   Like, when it's kind of like, yes.

00:01:42   Like maybe, I don't know.

00:01:46   - Like there are so many answers,

00:01:48   they just go, yes. This is pretty much what this document does.

00:01:54   Well, my favorite, so like John kind of summarized some of this in Mac stories and he pulled

00:02:00   in a block quote, which I just love this, where it's regarding the lightning to 3.5

00:02:06   millimeter cable for the AirPods Max, like will that support it, right? Like if you plugged

00:02:10   your AirPods Max in via the cable and it says the lightning to 3.5 millimeter audio cable

00:02:16   was designed to allow AirPods Max to connect to analog sources for listening to movies

00:02:21   and music. AirPods Max can be connected to devices playing lossless and high-res lossless

00:02:26   recordings with exceptional audio quality. However, given the analog to digital conversion

00:02:31   in the cable, the playback will not be completely lossless.

00:02:34   So what does it mean then? Am I going to get anything better or no or what?

00:02:40   Well, you're gonna get the kind of quality that whatever kind of bitrate the built-in

00:02:48   DAC inside of a lightning cable does.

00:02:51   But they don't say what that is, though.

00:02:53   No, they don't.

00:02:54   I don't believe they've ever actually documented in public the kind of DAC that they're using

00:03:00   inside of the lightning cable.

00:03:01   I think someone did a teardown of the connector in the cable.

00:03:09   I'm sure we can find something on the internet.

00:03:12   Still, so the basic rundown of all this is the AirPods Max,

00:03:16   they will not support native lossless and high-res lossless,

00:03:20   even if you connect the cable.

00:03:23   Apple devices will be able to play lossless using

00:03:26   the built-in speakers and wired connections.

00:03:30   If you connect AirPods or other wireless headphones made

00:03:34   by Apple or made by others, they will use Bluetooth,

00:03:37   So it'll be lossy. iOS devices will not support, and Macs also, they will not support Hi-Res lossless.

00:03:46   So in that case, Apple recommends using an external USB DAC. But the HomePod and HomePod Mini,

00:03:53   they will be updated at some point in the future to natively support lossless playback.

00:03:59   Now, this is confusing because they say in a future software update, lossless playback will

00:04:05   be supported on HomePod and HomePod Mini. They don't actually specifically say a software

00:04:12   update will add support for lossless and high-res lossless, or just one of them. I believe they

00:04:19   just say "lossless playback". So, again, not entirely clear what that means. I assume...

00:04:28   So this is now we're entering speculation territory. I assume there's going to be some

00:04:33   changes around all of this at WWDC. I think we're being sandbagged right now. Yeah, hence

00:04:39   why Apple is not being entirely honest. They're not being very forthcoming with all of this

00:04:44   stuff. I was like, I kind of want to tell you, but I cannot. You know, we've been talking

00:04:50   about this so much that like the other day my brain just started like kind of like moving

00:04:55   the word lossless around a bunch. Like I was just like poking it in my brain and like the

00:05:00   The word lossless...

00:05:03   It doesn't mean anything anymore.

00:05:04   It doesn't really make any sense because it just means you'll lose less.

00:05:09   You're suffering from semantic satiation, is that what it's called?

00:05:13   I was like, hang on a minute.

00:05:15   Lossless, lossless, lossless.

00:05:17   Lossless, less loss then.

00:05:19   It's not completely loss.

00:05:22   And then it's like lossy and it's like I really just went off on one a little bit and then

00:05:27   that was gone.

00:05:28   a few minutes to that the other day. Yeah, yeah, it's very confusing. Look, I think

00:05:36   Apple is trying to document whatever is going on here at the best of their

00:05:41   abilities right now, just two weeks before WWDC, where I have a feeling that

00:05:48   things will start to get more clear in the next software update, because if

00:05:54   If these are the limitations that we will have to deal with for the next couple of years,

00:06:01   this is confusing.

00:06:02   This is really too bad.

00:06:03   And I do not believe that.

00:06:04   I think something will have to give here.

00:06:08   Either iOS devices like, physically speaking, the iPhone, for example, the next iPhone will

00:06:13   support high res losses, for example, or the AirPods will gain a different chip, or Apple

00:06:19   is going to do something in the wireless department.

00:06:23   And I believe we're going to talk about this later also regarding some ideas that I have.

00:06:30   So we'll see. We'll see. But like, I also tweeted about this a few days ago. I wouldn't

00:06:36   be surprised if Apple isn't saying the, like, if this support document looks confusing right

00:06:42   now because there's an AirPlay 3 coming at WWDC. Like, the more I think about it, the

00:06:49   more... it's the only theory that really makes sense for a bunch of reasons. One of them

00:06:56   being if Apple wants to add new... what's it called? Wi-Fi radios? Like new Wi-Fi based

00:07:04   features to an existing product like AirPods, they would have to get like an FCC certification

00:07:12   in the United States.

00:07:13   I think they have to do that in Europe too. Just like the Eurasian Commission or whatever.

00:07:17   Whereas basically the idea is, if you do it in software and you use AirPlay, and you come

00:07:23   up with a Bluetooth version of AirPlay that somehow, maybe using the H1 chip, can accommodate

00:07:31   a larger bandwidth than would be allowed with standard SBC or AAC, whatever Apple uses,

00:07:40   maybe that could be an idea.

00:07:41   So a brand new version of AirPlay, let's call it AirPlay 3, that can switch over to

00:07:47   Bluetooth for this kind of lossless playback. Now, and again, we need to simplify this conversation

00:07:53   if we want to have an audience that listens to this episode. The idea is that Apple needs

00:07:59   to come up, if they do this, if this theory is correct, and there's an excellent article

00:08:04   that I tweeted a few days ago that we can link in the show notes, but if Apple can come

00:08:08   up with a sort of a new version of AirPlay that can also work over Bluetooth and that

00:08:16   can, and if they can figure out ways around Bluetooth's own like, lossy behavior, and

00:08:24   maybe say "well, we're using Bluetooth, but thanks to the H1 chip we can, you know, work

00:08:29   around compression" and things like that, that could be interesting, because it could

00:08:34   mean all AirPods will be updated to AirPlay 3, and now over AirPlay 3 you can listen to,

00:08:40   you know, at the very least like the lossless tier in Apple Music without compression, that

00:08:44   could be interesting. I don't know if it's technically possible, I'm not an audio engineer,

00:08:49   but obviously the thing, like, the same problem remains, even if they do this. Do you really

00:08:55   want to listen to lossless music with AirPods? I mean, you can, and I think a lot of people

00:09:00   are getting stuck on this point of "well, but I need to know that it's technically possible".

00:09:06   And even if they make it technically possible, you still probably don't want to use AirPods

00:09:11   or AirPods Pro for that kind of lossless playback. Now, AirPods Max are a different discussion,

00:09:16   obviously, like, with those kinds of headphones, sure. But we'll see. I do believe that there

00:09:21   has to be a part of the story that we're not getting so far, and we're not getting it because

00:09:26   it's too soon, and I gotta believe it has to be something AirPlay and Bluetooth related,

00:09:33   because the more I think about it, the more I struggle to come up with any other explanation.

00:09:38   And maybe there is no explanation, which would be my other conclusion.

00:09:42   There is no explanation, it is what it is, these are the limitations.

00:09:46   Maybe it's as simple as that.

00:09:47   But I don't know.

00:09:49   I like to dream.

00:09:51   You mentioned WWDC, we are two weeks away and Apple have released the schedule for WWDC.

00:09:57   There isn't really anything particularly interesting in the sense of anything big and new and bold

00:10:07   about this WWDC. I think one of the things that is different to previous years is they

00:10:12   are going to be having a video presentation at the Apple Design Awards, which is something

00:10:16   Apple used to do and then stopped doing. They're going to have some guest speakers this time,

00:10:20   which is something that's always been at WWDC but wasn't at last year's. They've detailed

00:10:25   there'll be 200 in-depth sessions and then a bunch of one-on-one labs and they've created

00:10:30   these things called pavilions this year where they're collecting up collections of different

00:10:34   things and like videos and tools and stuff around certain topics. Yeah there's

00:10:40   and as you would have imagined it's 10 a.m. on June 7th Pacific time for the

00:10:44   keynote. But that does mean that next week we're doing the rookies again.

00:10:49   Oh yeah big time we're doing it. Today opened my task manager and had to I was

00:10:58   kind of like just poking through the next couple of weeks and realized that

00:11:01   I'd set my task for the Ricky's for the wrong week. I'd set it for next week, right? To

00:11:07   like start preparing for the Ricky's next Thursday. And that would have been bad for

00:11:11   me because we would have already recorded them by then. So I moved it to this Thursday.

00:11:16   I've been preparing, all right. I designed the whole system, obviously, you will not

00:11:21   be surprised, in Obsidian just for WWDC. Oh my God. Okay. It's funny because I was listening

00:11:27   to the latest episode of Cortex where you try to explain to Grey what I'm doing in Obsidian,

00:11:32   and Grey is like "Yeah, that's basically Org Mode" and you're like "What are you saying?"

00:11:35   Yes, Myke.

00:11:36   That was when he lost me again. Org Mode. I just can't, I don't want to. He keeps bringing

00:11:40   it up and I hate it.

00:11:44   So I created like a, I call it a WWDC dashboard, which is like this, it's basically like a

00:11:50   fancy note that has a bunch of links to other places. One of those places is WWDC predictions,

00:11:56   So I've been working on those.

00:11:59   I created this nice button that lets me save something that I hear at WWDC real quick.

00:12:05   It's all very nice.

00:12:06   It's a nice workspace that I put together.

00:12:08   And I have a long list of predictions.

00:12:10   Now I feel over-prepared for this one, and so I will have to...

00:12:15   You're gonna overthink it.

00:12:16   That's the problem.

00:12:18   That's the problem.

00:12:19   So I kind of want to stop looking at it, and I want to follow my heart and my passion.

00:12:26   I don't want to like overstructure the whole thing, so I'm just gonna go with what I feel is right.

00:12:32   You know?

00:12:34   But Hypervisor for sure, I'm gonna mention that.

00:12:37   Oh yeah, of course, everyone.

00:12:38   I mean, you're just gonna have to really rush for Hypervisor, because everyone's gonna want to pick that.

00:12:42   It's lucky that you get to pick first.

00:12:44   Driver kit, Hypervisor, all of those things.

00:12:47   Yeah, you're lucky you're the reigning champion, so you get to pick first,

00:12:49   because otherwise me or Steven would have definitely taken one of those picks for real.

00:12:53   Oh, that is true!

00:12:55   speaking of Steven he might not be here today but he did make a really good

00:12:59   YouTube video comparing the orange iMac g3 to the new 24 inch iMac in orange

00:13:04   I'll put a link in the show notes to it you should go and watch it it's a very

00:13:07   beautiful video and it's funny so that's two big ticks in the boxes there I did

00:13:13   something today so I also have an iMac I have a review in it from Apple that I've

00:13:20   had for nearly a week now and I did a big review of it on upgrade so if you

00:13:26   want to hear my thoughts about my lovely little yellow iMac that I'm talking to

00:13:30   you on right now Federico people can go and listen to episode 3.34 of upgrade

00:13:35   sitting at this desk today I was kind of I was looking at it because what I had

00:13:39   on here before was my Mac Mini and a monitor a Dell monitor on a VESA arm and

00:13:45   one thing which is quite funny because the iMac isn't high enough it's on top

00:13:50   of my Mac minis my Mac mini is holding it's kind of sad really for the Mac mini

00:13:55   that it is holding up oh I can it's like potential replacement or at least it's

00:14:00   temporary replacement and so I had moved my monitor out of the way right it's on

00:14:06   an arm I could just swing it out of the way so I got out of the way at a desk

00:14:09   and I thought to myself maybe it would be interesting to bring this monitor

00:14:14   back into the equation. So I set up today my Dell monitor. It is at 90 degrees so it's

00:14:22   like in portrait orientation. And I've got it next to my iMac. So I now have a second

00:14:29   monitor and on that monitor right now is just all the recording tools. So audio hijacks

00:14:34   there, zooms there and skypes there. So it's just like just the apps that I use to record

00:14:41   just going to live permanently on that screen.

00:14:43   So if I was moving from desk like space to space on the main, on the iMac,

00:14:47   I can always see that everything's recording. I can see all the stuff moving.

00:14:51   I can check the time codes if I need to make a little edit note or something

00:14:55   like I've got all of that there. It's intriguing.

00:14:57   Now what I will say is that Mac OS is support for external monitors is actually,

00:15:03   I don't think as good as it could be. It's like we're complaining about the iPad.

00:15:08   So like on the Mac, even on the Mac.

00:15:10   So here's something I had, right?

00:15:11   I have my, my dock on the left and I wanted to put this monitor on the left.

00:15:17   So that meant that my dock would only exist on the left monitor.

00:15:22   I couldn't get it to shoot and it's not what I wanted because then my monitor is

00:15:26   all the way, my dock is all the way over here on this.

00:15:29   It goes all the way up the length of this portrait display, which is quite large.

00:15:33   So to make this work the way that I, because I want to have my dock on my

00:15:37   iMac so now I've moved my dock to the right side so I have the dock on the iMac

00:15:42   and so you can specify where you want like what you want the dominant display

00:15:46   to be right but that doesn't change where the dock goes if you have it on

00:15:53   the side of where you're putting one of the monitors and I was doing a bunch of

00:15:57   searching and I found a load of crappy articles that all said that they could

00:16:01   help me and none of them could help me you know like when you have one of these

00:16:04   computer problems and you just find a bunch of other never true. It's never

00:16:07   no it's all just garbage and so yeah I was just a little bit frustrated about

00:16:12   that I don't know why I can't say like put as many monitors as I want in

00:16:15   whatever arrangement I want but my doc should go here and it doesn't do that

00:16:20   and I find that to be quite strange so that I found that to be an annoyance but

00:16:27   yeah I'm trying this out as a little experiment I have no idea if I'm gonna

00:16:30   keep it but I think I think I like it because I feel like my audio hijack

00:16:36   windows are always obscured by something and I don't want them to be because I

00:16:40   like to have them I like to see that the dials are moving and all that stuff

00:16:43   right and like that I can just a glance confirm that everything's still

00:16:47   recording and all that kind of stuff and so I actually think I kind of like

00:16:52   having them off on the side here so I don't know what this means for me going

00:16:56   into the future but as of right now I think I might be a multi-monitor person

00:17:00   Okay, I have some questions. I kind of want to understand how do you deal with windowing

00:17:07   on the Mac, particularly in the context of you for a long time worked on the iPad Pro

00:17:13   as your primary computer, then you went back to Mac OS. So now that it's been a few months

00:17:20   now, how do you deal with managing Windows? How many do you open? How strongly do you

00:17:27   feel about, like are you that kind of like, are you really particular about the placement

00:17:33   of your windows or do you just don't care?

00:17:35   I'm not particularly particular. I have like a rough idea of where I want my windows to

00:17:41   be, but they're all overlapping and stuff because I don't like any of these like snapping

00:17:46   tools.

00:17:47   Oh, you don't?

00:17:48   No, I don't because I like, on the Mac, I like to have lots of apps open. I have lots

00:17:53   of apps open. So on one, I have two spaces right now, ignoring the external monitor.

00:17:59   On the space that I'm looking at right now, there's four apps, which is Discord and Overcast

00:18:06   and Safari. I also have numbers open, but I don't know why that's open. And that's just

00:18:11   what I'm looking at when I'm recording. And then I have my other space, which has every

00:18:16   other app that I have open. So it's got Messages, Mail, Todoist, I'm not getting into that today,

00:18:23   craft, timere, oh yeah i'm using the timere mac app it's amazing it's coming soon, slack

00:18:30   and notes and that's just kind of like they're my main work apps but they all kind of just

00:18:34   overlap with each other and that's fine i'm a heavy mission control user and i will just

00:18:39   click icons in the dock and stuff i kind of give into it on the mac because i've never

00:18:43   been happy with any of the tools that can arrange it for you i don't like the way that

00:18:47   the mac does it you know like with trying to do split views and stuff you know i know

00:18:51   there are these apps like Moom and stuff and I don't like any of those. So I'm kind of

00:18:55   just like, "blah, just put them everywhere," right? And I'll just work it out. And like

00:19:00   I move apps around a lot on my display like throughout the day. So I'm just kind of like

00:19:06   whatever, they just go where they go. Because my personal preference is the way that the

00:19:13   iPad allows focus. Now as I said before, I want to have more than just two apps and a

00:19:18   slide over app, right? None of you said that, like that's what I would like, but I find

00:19:25   that that doesn't, none of those like kind of hey goes here, hey goes there, hey goes

00:19:30   here type of applications on the Mac don't work for me, I just have everything open and

00:19:33   it just goes wherever and it all overlaps and I embrace the messiness of it and try

00:19:38   not to pay attention to it.

00:19:40   Ok, so I guess you're not using any automation utilities, any shortcuts like Keyboard Maestro,

00:19:49   those sort of media utilities?

00:19:51   I'm actually, spoilers for later on, I want to talk about this kind of stuff in our "one

00:19:58   feature each" section today about automation on the Mac.

00:20:02   It's not really a world that I've gone into yet because I'm hoping for other things.

00:20:07   But I know that all these things exist and I could have like, you know, I see all the

00:20:12   cool kids have their stream decks now, right?

00:20:14   And they set up all their windows to open and they all go to the right places.

00:20:18   Why is that?

00:20:19   What's the deal with stream deck?

00:20:21   What's the deal with it?

00:20:22   Someone, I don't know who started this.

00:20:24   Uh, it may have been Rosemary Orchard, but I know that like everyone's getting them now,

00:20:30   right?

00:20:31   And they're setting up Keyboard Maestro.

00:20:32   It's like they just press a button and then like seven apps open and they all go to the

00:20:36   right places, and this is just a thing that everyone seems to be doing now.

00:20:42   Interesting. OK. Somebody mentioned it in the Discord. John, the one true John, had

00:20:50   a really nice tip in the latest issue of Mac

00:20:52   Stories Weekly about rearranging Windows on the Mac using the native Apple-provided solution.

00:21:02   And spoiler, it involves pressing the option button and you get a much better behavior.

00:21:07   If you just do this secret and invisible thing that nobody can discover on their own, the

00:21:12   feature to move windows gets much, much better than the default.

00:21:16   Because I don't know about you, Myke, but I really fundamentally despise the macOS split

00:21:23   view that it takes you into, like, why is that?

00:21:27   Why is that so confusing?

00:21:29   And I think it's kind of funny that sort of at a higher level, I don't think Apple has

00:21:36   fully figured out multitasking anywhere. That would be my statement, right? Because you

00:21:41   have some things that are excellent on the Mac, and then you have some other things on

00:21:46   the Mac and you just look at them like SplitView and managing desktops and you're like, "Whoa,

00:21:51   who thought of this? This is such a bad idea." And then you look at iPadOS and obviously

00:21:56   it's got many problems, right? Like many, many problems. But then you realize, well,

00:22:01   some things are actually simple, though. It's nice that there's no confusion as to, like,

00:22:07   I see two apps at the same time, but I can always go back to the home screen. There's

00:22:12   some things that are nicer on the iPad than others that are nicer on the Mac, but there

00:22:17   is no fully cohesive, unifying vision for multitasking. Maybe there doesn't have to

00:22:23   Here's my kind of view on multitasking.

00:22:26   It was done a certain way on the Mac and it made sense.

00:22:30   Then it got out of hand.

00:22:32   Then Apple tried to make it with the iPad and they didn't do enough.

00:22:35   It's too simple.

00:22:36   So now we have two ways of like managing multiple apps, Windows, whatever.

00:22:41   And they're on the exact ends of a spectrum.

00:22:44   And there is a middle ground.

00:22:46   And I think you were talking about some app stories where like,

00:22:49   Do for multitasking what you did with the cursor on

00:22:52   Ipads right like it's the same idea

00:22:56   But it is done more gracefully and with more modern features and of like the OS being aware of the interface more

00:23:04   Do that and like so my my like hope for

00:23:08   multitasking on the iPad is

00:23:10   That it might help inform a new direction or at least a new option

00:23:15   for how to manage this kind of stuff in a more visually appealing way.

00:23:20   So multi-monitor mic.

00:23:24   Interesting. How long is it gonna be before you got a Pro Display XDR?

00:23:29   Oh, I have no desire for one of those.

00:23:32   I mean, I'm just holding out for... well, because I don't even know what my computers are gonna be in the future, right?

00:23:36   Like I have no idea right now. For consumer display.

00:23:38   Maybe you're waiting for a consumer display made by Apple? Or an iMac.

00:23:44   So we will take a break here. Just Stephen's gonna add all the ads in this episode of connected is brought to you by memberful

00:23:52   Memberful is the easiest way to sell your memberships online

00:23:57   Used by the biggest creators on the web

00:24:00   It can help you generate sustainable recurring income while diversifying your revenue stream

00:24:06   You've probably heard us talking about the relay FM membership program

00:24:10   But what you might not know is that we use Memberfull for our program.

00:24:15   It's the platform that we chose to build our membership on.

00:24:18   They make it super easy for us to generate that revenue stream and deliver bonus content

00:24:23   to our members.

00:24:25   When we first signed up for Memberfull, our goal was to have something that was easy to

00:24:30   use, integrated with a newsletter and a couple of other things.

00:24:34   But as the program grew and as last year as we launched extra podcast content over RSS,

00:24:40   Memberful has just been a great partner

00:24:42   in all of those changes.

00:24:44   Their system really works well for us

00:24:46   and I think it'll work great for you too.

00:24:49   If you're already producing content

00:24:50   and relying on advertising or other means of income,

00:24:53   Memberful makes it easy to diversify that income

00:24:57   with everything you need to run a membership program,

00:25:01   including custom branding, gift subscriptions,

00:25:04   Apple Pay support, free trials,

00:25:06   private podcasts, and tons more,

00:25:08   while leaving you with full control and ownership

00:25:12   of everything that relates to your audience,

00:25:14   your brand, and your membership.

00:25:16   If you're a content creator,

00:25:18   Memberful can help you monetize your passion.

00:25:20   Get started now for free at memberful.com.

00:25:24   There's no credit card acquired.

00:25:26   That's memberful.com.

00:25:27   Go there now and check it out.

00:25:29   It could be the start of something really exciting.

00:25:31   Our thanks to Memberful for their support of the show

00:25:34   and Relay FM.

00:25:35   So Federico, you sent me a challenge a couple of days ago.

00:25:39   You had an idea.

00:25:40   Would you like to tell the listeners what this idea was?

00:25:43   - Well, we on this show, Unconnected,

00:25:46   we have been fortunate over the years

00:25:50   because a bunch of really nice things happened to us, right?

00:25:54   We were featured on stage at WWDC once.

00:25:57   Tim Cook stood in front of our artwork

00:26:00   and that was a beautiful moment.

00:26:02   We had all sorts of adventures on the show.

00:26:05   We did live shows with surprises.

00:26:08   I was able to talk about my iOS reviews.

00:26:11   We were able to interview folks at Apple.

00:26:14   We did embargoed episodes.

00:26:16   All kinds of nice things happened over the years.

00:26:19   But one thing where we are extremely fortunate

00:26:22   and privileged and lucky--

00:26:24   I didn't know where you were going with this,

00:26:26   and I hate you for doing it.

00:26:27   --is that this is the only show where

00:26:31   we have the TVOS guy. Nobody else, no other tech podcast has a TVOS guy. We are the only ones

00:26:42   who do. So Michael, I thought, why not have the new Apple TV remote, colon, the TVOS guy review?

00:26:53   So here we are. I actually really like this idea, it didn't cross my mind. I only remember

00:27:00   I'm the TV OS guy in like the first week of September. You only remember once a year.

00:27:09   But yes I am the TV OS guy and I do have, as is typical with me with these things, a

00:27:15   surprising amount of opinions. Obviously, see, you are the TV OS guy. Not just the TV

00:27:22   OS remote but the new Apple TV. I didn't just buy the remote because I'm the TV OS

00:27:27   I need to have the the bleeding edge hardware for testing. I've got to make sure I have the right amount of RAM

00:27:33   just in case Apple makes multitasking on the Apple TV.

00:27:36   Sure.

00:27:37   So the new TV remote is chunky.

00:27:42   Okay.

00:27:42   It's big and it's chunky. It is, I think, surprisingly large.

00:27:47   I feel like I wasn't aware of what the dimensions of this thing was actually going to be like.

00:27:53   and when it arrived it was like oh okay I immediately understand that you have built

00:27:59   a remote to be nicer to hold because it's thick it's got a curve on the back which it doesn't need

00:28:05   to have that's clearly so it feels comfortable in the hand and it is very obviously significantly

00:28:11   longer than is needed it doesn't seem like there is a lot of additional stuff going on inside this

00:28:18   remote that you would need to make it so much larger than the one it replaces in thickness

00:28:23   and in length, right? Like it's, you can tell, is like there's just this, I just believe this

00:28:28   has been designed to be much nicer for the sake of ergonomics, right? For people to hold in their

00:28:35   hands, yes. It's made for human hands, as opposed to just trying to be the essence of a remote. Did

00:28:43   they say the essence of a remote? I believe that totally sounds like a Johnny Ive thing to say.

00:28:48   I mean, who knows? Possibly, right?

00:28:51   Do you remember the iPod Shuffle where they removed all the buttons

00:28:54   and you could operate it via voiceover?

00:28:57   I do.

00:28:58   Right. That's the Siri remote.

00:29:00   Yes.

00:29:00   Where they tried to take away everything

00:29:04   and provide you with, like, the most perfect and simple thing.

00:29:09   It's so thin and small.

00:29:11   What if your remote was an idea?

00:29:13   Yeah. What if your remote was just a soul?

00:29:17   And you know, like, yeah.

00:29:19   And so that was what we got.

00:29:20   And now they've gone back to the iPod Shuffle

00:29:23   with a bunch of buttons on it.

00:29:24   And it literally looks like the iPod Shuffle as well.

00:29:27   Like, it looks like the white one,

00:29:29   the original iPod Shuffle.

00:29:30   The curve on the back feels great.

00:29:31   It's made for human hands.

00:29:32   This is a remote made for human hands.

00:29:34   The buttons are nice and clicky, and they sound good.

00:29:37   I think that there's, I believe there's some air inside,

00:29:40   like it is hollow inside, right?

00:29:42   'Cause it's quite light.

00:29:43   So I imagine that there's some resonance

00:29:46   when you're pressing the buttons as well as it feeling nice.

00:29:49   So I think that they've done a good job there.

00:29:51   So it feels good, it sounds nice.

00:29:54   I don't know if you notice as well,

00:29:55   if you look at the bottom,

00:29:57   there's like next to the lightning port,

00:30:00   there's two little screws.

00:30:02   Did you see those?

00:30:04   - Let me grab the remote.

00:30:05   Hold on.

00:30:06   (upbeat music)

00:30:08   Okay. - Okay, he's got it.

00:30:12   So you can see at the bottom of the remote,

00:30:14   there are two tiny screws

00:30:16   and there's like a seam that runs around the outside.

00:30:18   - Have you opened them?

00:30:19   - No, I haven't done that.

00:30:20   I thought about it,

00:30:21   but then realized I would probably destroy it.

00:30:24   And so I think basically, this is just,

00:30:27   they just put the remote in, right?

00:30:29   It's just a shell.

00:30:30   They just slide the guts of the remote in there

00:30:33   and screw it in.

00:30:34   And so when I looked at something like that,

00:30:35   I was like, okay, all of this just seems to tell me

00:30:39   that they have eschewed some of the typical things

00:30:43   we'd expect from Apple, seamless and small and light and thin, to actually make a better

00:30:49   product for its intended use case.

00:30:52   They just made a thick remote and yes, I love it.

00:30:57   I find personally that it is very natural to use either the swiping gestures or the

00:31:04   D-Pads. So the central area which is, I can never remember if it's concave or convex,

00:31:10   one where it goes in right not out so it's like dips into the middle yeah I

00:31:15   don't know either right and so there's it's got that's also touch sensitive as

00:31:21   well as the ring that goes around it's concave that is called telling me it's

00:31:24   the concave button and so this area is also touch sensitive as is the ring the

00:31:30   kind of the jog wheel that goes around the outside and I like that I have the

00:31:34   option so I can swipe or I can click and I think it works great I always found

00:31:39   swiping through the UI to actually be a nice feature. It was helpful in a lot of

00:31:43   ways but the problem with the previous remote is that the touch area was just

00:31:47   too large. It occupied far too much of, I'm not telling you anything you don't

00:31:51   already know right, like but just to add all the context for this discussion, it

00:31:55   was just too large which just meant that there were too many accidental touches

00:31:59   and sometimes if you just wanted to go over one, you know like you're on one

00:32:03   tile you just want to go over to the next tile it's very easy to skip over

00:32:08   and there it was possible to click the old remote in certain places but it

00:32:14   didn't always work the way that you wanted it to so I like that now I have

00:32:19   the option to swipe or I have the d-pad buttons because the d-pad like the old

00:32:23   iPod as well as being touch sensitive you can also physically click it and the

00:32:27   physical clicking you can go like just in one like left left left right right

00:32:31   right down down down that kind of thing. I think that this is really nice for if

00:32:34   you're say jumping over to one episode, you're selecting the next app in the

00:32:38   home screen, I've also found it to be much nicer for if I need to type

00:32:42   something into the UI to use the clicking or a combination of both. You

00:32:47   know like if you do overshoot on a swipe now, it's way easier to just go back

00:32:52   by one rather than overshoot again and then overshoot again and then you

00:32:55   finally get to where you want to be. Also with the jog wheel being touch

00:32:59   sensitive, they've added a new way for you to seek through content. So one of the

00:33:03   great things about the swiping was that it was really easy to just you just

00:33:07   click on the old remote and you can just swipe through content right but again

00:33:11   because of the way that the swiping action works will be very easy to kind

00:33:16   of overshoot it. But now there is the option to use your finger or your thumb

00:33:22   to scroll around the outside of the wheel, like the jog wheel, and you get a

00:33:29   much more precise movement. There's a little bit more inertia going on and it

00:33:34   moves a little bit slower than the swipe does and I think provides for a

00:33:40   nicer experience to move backwards and forwards through content. Now I have

00:33:45   noticed that you have to be quite intentional when you start this

00:33:49   animation. I was very confused by this because sometimes I was doing what I

00:33:53   thought was the swiping around to the left and right but the Apple remote was

00:33:58   thinking that I was swiping left and right on the touchpad it was very

00:34:01   confusing. Yeah I cannot get this to work at all like I don't know how to do the scrubbing.

00:34:05   Myke Hurley the tvOS guy is here to help you and I can tell you exactly

00:34:09   what you need to do. So by default what I do and I just tried this now again I put

00:34:15   my thumb on the outer part of the ring and I go in a clockwise motion. But if I do that

00:34:23   and I'm scrubbing when watching a video, the scroll, what's it called, the progress bar,

00:34:29   it just goes back and forth, like left to right, and it doesn't actually advance. Like

00:34:34   it goes from one minute to six minutes and then it goes all the way back to one minute.

00:34:39   It's super confusing, I don't get it.

00:34:41   So I can tell you exactly what you need to do. So, there is just a little process, I

00:34:45   I think the process is fine once you've understood it.

00:34:47   The trick is click down in the center

00:34:49   or pause the video with the play pause.

00:34:52   And so you get the little progress bar that comes up.

00:34:55   Place your thumb or your finger just down for a second

00:34:59   on the remote, don't move it.

00:35:01   And then you'll see the little circle pops up.

00:35:04   - You get the circle.

00:35:05   - Yeah, so you have to kind of hold it down for a second

00:35:08   and then you can start doing it.

00:35:10   So you're switching between the two modes.

00:35:12   And the animation here--

00:35:14   Why two modes?

00:35:15   I don't know.

00:35:16   I kind of wished that you could just choose.

00:35:20   However, I do like that there's the combination of the two.

00:35:24   So what I'll tell you is now I know how to do this.

00:35:28   I've gotten very used to this over the last couple of days.

00:35:31   And it's not like the first time I did it, I was like, why did they do this?

00:35:34   Once you kind of internalize this action,

00:35:37   now I feel like I have a choice depending on what I want to do in either environment.

00:35:41   So what I would suggest is sit with this for a bit, get used to it, and I think you will

00:35:46   like that you have the option because that's kind of where I feel.

00:35:48   But it's so confusing that it never tells you that you can do this.

00:35:51   Yeah, so you again, I will just reiterate this.

00:35:54   So on the remote, you click down in the middle, so it pauses or you get the progress bar to

00:35:58   come up so you can pause or click down.

00:36:01   You rest your thumb or your finger on the ring like the jog wheel.

00:36:06   And if you look at the Apple TV, if you just rest and hold it, you'll see a little white

00:36:10   circle appear over the progress bar. That's when you know that you're in kind of jog wheel mode.

00:36:15   That's the good mode.

00:36:16   That's the good mode.

00:36:17   AKA the good mode. And I will tell you a really nice thing about this, one of these beautiful

00:36:22   Apple details. So the white ring on the TV has a little black circle, like a little dot. That

00:36:28   is matched to where your finger is on the wheel. So as you move your thumb around the wheel, the

00:36:36   the little black dot on the wheel on the TV,

00:36:39   the white wheel on the TV,

00:36:41   will move in one-to-one motion with you.

00:36:44   Very nice. - That's nice.

00:36:45   I'm gonna give you another detail.

00:36:46   So when you're in good mode

00:36:49   and you're scrubbing through a video,

00:36:50   when you go back to the moment where you paused the video,

00:36:56   you see there's a gray dot indicator

00:36:58   that shows you the moment where you paused.

00:37:02   when the white circle exactly overlays that moment,

00:37:06   meaning you're back where you started,

00:37:10   you will see these wipe down for info message

00:37:14   at the top of the screen.

00:37:16   So that also serves as a visual aid that tells you

00:37:19   this is where you started scrubbing from.

00:37:22   - If you wanna go back.

00:37:23   - If you wanna resume, you actually,

00:37:25   like when you reach the, when there's an overlap

00:37:28   between the gray circle and the white circle,

00:37:30   you get the, it basically tells you in the UI.

00:37:33   - So going back to the D-pad itself,

00:37:38   one of the really nice features again

00:37:40   of the original Siri remote is the ability to click left

00:37:44   and right on the remote and you can go forward and back

00:37:47   by I think it's 10 or 15 seconds.

00:37:49   But again, this was something that was difficult

00:37:51   to do correctly without accidentally swiping.

00:37:55   Now with the buttons and the clicking, this is way nicer.

00:37:58   and stuff like these, these kinds of interactions where you can click instead of swiping,

00:38:03   I think it's another reason why you have that slight delay before you enter the swiping

00:38:07   kind of the good mode as we call it. So it will allow you to click through things like you can

00:38:12   just click 10 10 10 and you know you you can move forward or move back without then starting a

00:38:17   swiping motion. So I think there's just that little affordance there to make sure that the system is

00:38:22   is accurately detecting what it is that you're wanting to do at that moment, whether it's to use

00:38:27   these like the jog wheel as a button or a swiping indicator or a swiping area.

00:38:35   So before you told me the tip about the good mode, and it was in my notes, I kind of wished

00:38:40   that I could disable the touch gestures altogether on the remote. I do still pick up some accidental

00:38:47   touches while handling this remote. I should also say that like usually when the dogs jump

00:38:54   on the bed and the remote just flies around, that usually happens, like some accidental

00:39:01   touches are registered and the UI does something weird.

00:39:05   So I would probably welcome the ability to just say outright disable touch mode on this

00:39:13   thing.

00:39:14   But the thing you just shared is also very nicely done, so it kind of counterbalances

00:39:19   that.

00:39:20   just got an email notification just pop up on my screen that was a dispatch

00:39:25   notification for my second Apple remote for my old Apple TV which I'm bringing

00:39:31   to the studio because I was like oh I'll just bring the old Apple TV and that

00:39:35   will be fine after just two or three days after I got used to the new remote

00:39:39   I can't use the old remote anymore I must get the new one so that's why I

00:39:43   purchased two immediately because I knew this was gonna happen yeah I hadn't

00:39:48   realized how much I wanted a dedicated power button until now. So there's a

00:39:53   dedicated power button on the remote that you just hold down for a second and

00:39:56   it turns everything off, which is way nicer than hold, press. Like you know you

00:40:01   just have to do these multiple actions to turn everything off. Having that dedicated

00:40:05   power button is great and one of the good things about the the power button,

00:40:08   this remote and also the mute button is if you were not having luck with HDMI CEC

00:40:16   which is a mode that allows for a device to turn on and off a television, right? So

00:40:23   you could use your Apple TV to turn on or off television control, volume and stuff

00:40:27   like that. This always worked for me with my televisions. I could always make this

00:40:31   work and it was fine. But now, but this doesn't always work and even if you have

00:40:36   a TV that says that it will work, but you know, so they have now added an

00:40:41   infrared transmitter to the Apple remote, which is why it's got that kind of

00:40:45   see-through section, like the dark see-through section, and all of these dedicated buttons

00:40:50   can be programmed to work with your television so you can then control remote, the volume

00:40:55   turn it on and off and stuff like that.

00:40:57   What a concept, right? A power button, an infrared sensor. It's almost like they finally

00:41:03   listen to the long tradition of TV remotes. And, you know, this is good. It's good when

00:41:09   Apple, they will never say they were wrong about something, obviously. This is not what

00:41:14   Apple does, even if you ask them "what do you think of the Siri remote?" "Oh, the Siri

00:41:17   remote is great, but the new one is even better." They never say that something, you know, was,

00:41:23   they will never, obviously, I mean, they're a company, they will never say "you know what,

00:41:27   that actually sucked, you're right, it was terrible." They will never say that, but it's

00:41:31   nice when you can clearly see, oh, you understand now where the problem was, and you fixed it.

00:41:38   The flying beagle has shared in the discord, it is actually possible to disable the touch

00:41:44   surface on the new remote.

00:41:46   If you go to settings on the apple tv, go to remote and devices and then clickpad, you

00:41:51   can select click and touch to allow both clicking and touch surface tracking or select click

00:41:56   only to turn off touch surface tracking.

00:41:59   I don't recommend this because what that's going to do is it's going to turn off the

00:42:02   good mode for you, right?

00:42:05   Because it's going to disable touch.

00:42:07   I don't think this is the right way to go.

00:42:09   I think it is possible to get used to the new one.

00:42:11   But if you do just want to use this remote as just up, down, left, right, and center,

00:42:17   you can do that.

00:42:18   That is tempting.

00:42:19   But I wouldn't recommend it.

00:42:21   Because I genuinely think one of the best features of the Apple TV is how smoothly you

00:42:28   can scroll through things.

00:42:30   But how often am I really scrolling through things?

00:42:33   Me?

00:42:34   All the time.

00:42:35   Really?

00:42:36   Why?

00:42:37   WYO's intro is like four and a half minutes long and I don't want to watch it every time.

00:42:41   I'm not one of those people. I can only watch that song so many times.

00:42:45   So there's people that really get upset about skipping the intros, right? It's a whole thing?

00:42:51   Yeah, it's a whole thing. But if I'm binging a television show, if I'm watching three episodes

00:42:56   in a day, I don't need to see it three times. I just don't. So, you know, like I like to

00:43:00   be able to scroll through for stuff like that. And I do like to be able to go backwards and

00:43:03   forward through content if there's something I wanted to catch again or

00:43:06   whatever I like to be able to have that precision and I do find that the new the

00:43:11   good mode provides for greater precision that's good point going back to the

00:43:15   dedicated buttons I love having a mute button now too that's great yes but I

00:43:20   have a question that I cannot understand they put the mute button in the same

00:43:25   location as to play pause button those on the old remote okay and I don't know

00:43:29   why they did that because the play pause bottom was bottom left now the play

00:43:33   pause button is above bottom left where mute is bottom left. So at the moment I

00:43:38   keep muting things all the time and I'm not sure exactly why they did this.

00:43:44   Well I have a conspiracy theory. I would love to hear it. That's because they never

00:43:49   want you to stop watching. They just want you to put it quiet, never stop. So I don't

00:43:54   know why they did this. I feel like they could have added the mute button in

00:43:57   above the play/pause button and kept it in the same place but again I will get

00:44:01   used to this of course but it's just an interesting thing I'm not sure why you

00:44:06   would do that. So in conclusion I have more to say about the Apple TV but in

00:44:10   conclusion the remote I think this remote is perfect for the Apple TV now

00:44:14   to the point where it is incredible to me to think that the same company made

00:44:20   both of these remotes. It really is because the Apple TV the Siri remote the

00:44:27   original Siri remote had some interesting concepts going on, but it seemed to be purposefully

00:44:35   going against typical remote design.

00:44:38   Where this version...

00:44:39   That's a very elegant way to put it.

00:44:42   This version is doing the opposite of that, where it is working within the conventions

00:44:48   of what a typical remote could be and should be and adding in some functionality.

00:44:52   Like it really is intriguing to me that this was done.

00:44:56   And again, we spoke about this, I don't like to play this game too much, but this also

00:45:01   feels like the potential of a significant change over an industrial designer Apple.

00:45:07   That you would go in such a harsh left turn.

00:45:12   Well until you see MacBooks with ports, including HDMI.

00:45:15   I know.

00:45:16   No, but even then though, right?

00:45:19   The thing about this remote is it wasn't fit for purpose and they kept it for such a long

00:45:26   time. So I think it wasn't like, "Oh, we know we f'd up here. Let's change this."

00:45:32   So you don't think this is an apology remote?

00:45:35   No because they would have done that ages ago. My feeling is this is a remote designed

00:45:42   after a change of direction for… like a change of direction in industrial design.

00:45:51   Like it's a broader thing. It's not just the remote. Yeah, I get it.

00:45:55   And I think we're seeing that in other places, right? But, you know, and again, if you see

00:45:59   the removal of the touch bar, the addition of ports on MacBook Pros, even this iMac that

00:46:03   I'm talking to you on now.

00:46:04   The iMac, I mean, look at that. It's like the ultimate proof.

00:46:07   It's very, very different. And whilst it does things like thin and light, right, which is

00:46:12   what Apple loves, but there's just so much that is different just from the visual of

00:46:16   this machine. So I really love the remote and I really recommend people stick with it

00:46:22   if they're confused about it or they're not 100% sure of it,

00:46:26   I really recommend sticking with it.

00:46:29   I am quite a heavy Apple TV user.

00:46:31   All of my media content is consumed on the Apple TV.

00:46:35   - Same, yes.

00:46:36   - So, you know, if you're wondering like why,

00:46:39   well, maybe I use it more than you maybe, I don't know,

00:46:42   like not you, but like the listener.

00:46:44   So I recommend sticking with it,

00:46:46   really trying to get to grips with what it can do.

00:46:48   I think that it is a vastly superior device.

00:46:52   Two things I would have liked to see personally.

00:46:55   U1 chip.

00:46:56   I don't understand why this remote doesn't have one.

00:46:59   I don't buy Apple's explanation that because it's thicker,

00:47:02   you're less likely to lose it in your couch or whatever.

00:47:07   This is the perfect device for the U1 chip.

00:47:11   I've seen people 3D print AirTag compatible cases

00:47:16   for the new remote.

00:47:17   And it's like, oh, that shouldn't be necessary.

00:47:20   There should be the U1 chip in here.

00:47:21   And also, why haven't we gotten a TV remote

00:47:25   with haptic feedback yet?

00:47:28   I feel like it would be super nice

00:47:29   to have that extra tactile confirmation,

00:47:33   like when you're scrubbing, for example, right, in a video.

00:47:36   And when, like when the little circle

00:47:38   gets over the other circle,

00:47:40   it will be nice to have some little haptic feedback

00:47:42   going on there.

00:47:43   I don't know, I just feel like it would be nice to have--

00:47:45   - It would be nice. - It would be nice

00:47:46   to have that, but mostly the U1 chip,

00:47:49   I don't really understand.

00:47:50   But overall, if you were, I know Myke, that in your long-form TV reviews you don't do

00:47:57   scoring, but if you were to score this remote, how would you grade it?

00:48:02   I think I would go with an 8.

00:48:04   Oh, and your TV scale goes from 1 to 7.

00:48:07   Ok, 1 to 7?

00:48:09   Of course it does.

00:48:10   Then I'm going to give this a 5.5 out of 7.

00:48:15   Ok.

00:48:16   Where the previous one may have gotten, say, a 2.5.

00:48:20   - Right.

00:48:21   - What would give it that extra,

00:48:22   I think this remote is great,

00:48:24   but I haven't given it higher than 5.5

00:48:27   because you've just listed a selection of features

00:48:30   that would make this thing even better.

00:48:32   So I don't want to score it too high, right?

00:48:33   - Exactly.

00:48:34   - So like a U1 chip would be fantastic.

00:48:36   It's perfect for this device.

00:48:38   A haptic motor would also be really wonderful for tvOS.

00:48:41   I feel like tvOS and haptics feel like

00:48:44   they would go really nicely together

00:48:45   just from a UI perspective.

00:48:47   So there are things to add.

00:48:49   Yeah, and we know that the highly coveted, you know, 7 out of 7 by Myke Hurley, it's,

00:48:55   you know, it's a...

00:48:56   7 out of 7 TVs.

00:48:58   You know, it's a big deal.

00:49:02   So you really stepped up your game here, because there's a second chapter.

00:49:06   It's a whole second segment.

00:49:07   Wow.

00:49:08   Which is a review of the Apple TV.

00:49:11   We're gonna need a table of contents here.

00:49:14   Wait till you see the animations that I've got going on.

00:49:19   Ooh, I bet, I bet.

00:49:21   Animations in a podcast, it's the perfect medium for it.

00:49:24   They're happening right here in front of me, it's a shame you can't see them.

00:49:27   Yeah, I know.

00:49:28   I got the new Apple TV.

00:49:29   I was reminded just how nice it is to set up an Apple TV.

00:49:33   It is Apple's best setup experience of any of their OS platforms.

00:49:38   All you need to do is bring your phone near it.

00:49:40   It has way fewer screens to go through and this home screen syncs.

00:49:44   So not only does it download all your apps, you just put them in the right place, it's

00:49:47   easy.

00:49:48   You don't need to do this whole iCloud backup thing or whatever.

00:49:51   It's just like, "Oh hey, you want all these apps?

00:49:52   Here you go, they're all there for you and they're in the exact place you left them."

00:49:55   It's so simple.

00:49:56   This is one of those features where if I were an Apple manager, I would go to the engineers

00:50:02   and hold an iPad and an Apple TV and be like, "You see home screen sync on this thing?

00:50:08   it on the other thing too. It's like, please sync my home screen on iPad. Like, let me

00:50:14   have this setup flow on other devices too. Just let me sync the thing. I love it. I love

00:50:22   the setup of the Apple TV. It's really well done.

00:50:24   But the new Apple TV, so I don't even know what, this is the one thing I'm unprepared

00:50:30   about and I feel terrible right now. I don't know what this Apple TV is actually called,

00:50:35   right?

00:50:36   Apple TV 4K?

00:50:37   It's the Apple TV 4K, but it must be some kind of version number, right? So let's say Apple TV 4K

00:50:45   2021, we'll call it that. The Apple TV 4K 2021 actually got a pretty significant new feature,

00:50:53   which is support for eARC. I don't know what the e stands for, but ARC stands for audio return channel.

00:51:00   Electronic. Electronic audio return channel is who we're going with. No, I don't know. I'm just guessing.

00:51:05   No, I don't know either, but we're just choosing that. So this is a new feature for the new

00:51:09   Apple TV.

00:51:11   It's enhanced, enhanced audio routine.

00:51:13   Enhanced, anything could be, I like electronic though. So this is a new feature for the new

00:51:18   Apple TV for if you also have the original HomePod paired to it for audio output. So

00:51:24   you have to be in like, we're multiple levels down, right?

00:51:29   Okay, okay, so new Apple TV discontinued HomePod, right?

00:51:35   And a television that supports eARC.

00:51:38   Okay.

00:51:39   You have to have all of these things.

00:51:40   So if you have a television that supports eARC,

00:51:44   and you have the new Apple TV,

00:51:46   and you have HomePods paired to it,

00:51:48   it is best for a HomePod pair,

00:51:50   but you can use it with a regular HomePod,

00:51:52   you will be able to play audio from any device

00:51:54   you have connected to your television via HDMI.

00:51:58   Wait, what?

00:51:59   So, any device, yes, any device plugged into your TV, so you just could be a games console

00:52:06   or anything audio related via HDMI.

00:52:09   If it's plugged into your television, you can use this like it basically will send the

00:52:15   audio through the EOC HDMI, through the Apple TV.

00:52:20   It's like a pass through, it is a pass through, it's actually a pass through to your home

00:52:25   pods.

00:52:26   This took me a little bit to set up just right,

00:52:28   because I had a bunch of settings

00:52:31   that I needed to configure on my OG TV.

00:52:32   Very easy to find in Google, by the way.

00:52:35   But, and I had some weird parts where at one point

00:52:38   it was just coming out one of my HomePods.

00:52:41   I actually took the time to reset my HomePods

00:52:43   to factory settings,

00:52:44   which is something I've been meaning to do for a while,

00:52:46   because I was having some issues

00:52:48   with the HomePod pair connected to the Apple TV.

00:52:51   I've been meaning to do this, I did it,

00:52:53   and it's been working great since then.

00:52:55   This feature is in beta.

00:52:57   It's actually labeled as such in the Apple TV settings.

00:53:00   And there's like this whole thing where like,

00:53:03   it needs to, like a TV goes black for a minute

00:53:06   and then it works.

00:53:07   And then sometimes it's like, oh, hey, this didn't work.

00:53:10   We're gonna try again.

00:53:11   And if it works, we'll let you know,

00:53:13   like it's very early, this feature.

00:53:16   But what this allows me to do

00:53:19   is to play my PlayStation 5 on my TV

00:53:23   and have the audio coming from my HomePod pair behind me.

00:53:28   And it sounds amazing.

00:53:31   So I've got some sound separation going on.

00:53:33   Music and games sound significantly better,

00:53:36   but also gameplay does as well.

00:53:38   I believe it's doing something,

00:53:40   it's taking advantage of surround sound output somehow,

00:53:43   'cause the PlayStation has support for that.

00:53:45   - The PlayStation 5 has 3D audio.

00:53:48   - I don't think it's doing that.

00:53:49   So in the settings, it knew it was doing eARC

00:53:52   in the play section and it was showing me, I couldn't change any of the settings, but

00:53:56   I saw surround sound from point one as the audio output. It's like I was playing a racing

00:54:02   game, duh, and I was playing Spiderman and I could hear a little bit, Spiderman was better,

00:54:07   I could hear things happening on the left and right of me that were different, right?

00:54:12   So, and I will say, I mean, look, I am not a first person shooter gamer, right? But there

00:54:19   didn't feel like there was any latency and if there was any I was about to ask

00:54:24   I'm sure this is a thing right I'm sure that there is more latency than if you

00:54:27   just had it coming through the TV but it was I couldn't notice it and I was

00:54:32   looking for it now would I recommend you play competitive call of duty doing this

00:54:37   no probably not because I'm sure it's gonna glitch out sometimes it did glitch

00:54:41   out well like I was just like two two or three seconds the sound was just coming

00:54:46   from one home pod and then it corrected itself. This is a beta feature. I wouldn't

00:54:50   recommend you do this if you're in a competition mode. But I can now play my

00:54:55   PlayStation with vastly improved sound. This is exactly what I wanted. I've been

00:55:01   you know I had complained about this for a long time when the home pod came out

00:55:05   originally. When I set this up as like the home pod pair I wanted to have

00:55:09   everything available to me and now I do. I would say if you are like me you have

00:55:15   a HomePod or two HomePods, especially if you're already using your HomePod PEP of your AppleTV

00:55:20   for audio and you have an eARC TV, this makes the new AppleTV a must-buy product for you.

00:55:28   This doesn't work with a HomePod Mini by the way, and that's what's so hilarious to me

00:55:32   here. This only works with the now discontinued HomePod. So I have two potential theories

00:55:42   here. Theory number one is the tvos team did not know that the homepot was getting killed

00:55:49   When they started work on this feature because why go to all this trouble?

00:55:54   Second theory here, which is the one that I actually really subscribe to is this is labeled as a beta

00:56:01   I think because they are getting ready to make a

00:56:05   Improved product to take the homepots place. I think it will be something more soundbar related

00:56:12   I definitely think that now and they're you know, they have time here because this eARC stuff

00:56:19   I think it's hard to

00:56:21   Sell the product on this because there's so many things that have to be in place for somebody to truly be able to take advantage

00:56:28   Of it, but I think that Apple is starting to build towards a better home entertainment product

00:56:34   that is the home pod and if you look at things like potentially new airplay and

00:56:40   lossless and then being able to listen to you know be able to have the sound of your

00:56:45   playstation coming out of this thing i think we are moving towards a new product that will

00:56:51   fit this space because i genuinely don't know why you would ship this feature if it would

00:56:58   only ever work with a product you no longer make i don't know why you'd go through all

00:57:04   that trouble and then why you'd ship it it's really backwards like yeah this brand new

00:57:10   feature that is really difficult to get right.

00:57:13   But it's kind of like the best way to do a beta for this really. It's like it is a very

00:57:21   niche audience that can even take advantage of it if they want to. So you just get the

00:57:25   data that you need about how this goes and it's in a small sample set. But I love it.

00:57:31   I mean it works great for me. So I'm, you know, it was kind of funny. I just was when

00:57:36   And I didn't know this feature was coming to the Apple TV.

00:57:39   And I just bought the new Apple TV because it was like "I'll just get the new Apple TV".

00:57:43   I could do with a second one because then I can bring one here to the studio, have one

00:57:47   at home.

00:57:48   And now I'm really pleased that I did it because I'm now benefiting from the exact feature

00:57:52   that I've wanted for years.

00:57:54   So I'm really happy with that purchase.

00:57:57   You know if I had enough room for them I would actually try and set up the two HomePods that

00:58:04   I still haven't sold just for this, although I'm not sure my TV supports eARC, so all of

00:58:10   this is useless anyway. I'm supposed to buy a new TV first, but I don't want to buy a

00:58:15   new TV because it's a whole thing and I don't have the patience for it. So I am just going

00:58:20   to use my Sony PlayStation 5 headphones for 3D audio. Let me tell you, it's spooky, especially

00:58:27   if you're playing returnal with 3D audio. Yeah, no thank you. Yeah. You know, I totally

00:58:33   a tangent. I cannot play that game, I don't think. Like, I really love it.

00:58:38   Oh, even you've fell off it now?

00:58:41   It's too... I don't know, maybe I'm not in the right mindset at the moment. I need calming

00:58:49   and chilling games. Like, right now I cannot play Returnal. It's too tense. So, I don't

00:58:56   know.

00:58:57   Side note of a side note, and I know that the reasons for this are very obvious, but

00:59:02   In terms of games, the new console generation has been kind of disappointing so far.

00:59:09   Oh yeah.

00:59:10   There hasn't really been anything, and I know why that's happened, but I will just

00:59:14   say, if you're one of these people, like One True John, who can't get a PlayStation

00:59:18   5…

00:59:19   You haven't missed out on much.

00:59:20   You haven't missed out on anything, really.

00:59:23   Yeah, I am going to get the new Ratchet and Clank in a couple of weeks.

00:59:30   one of the first true PlayStation 5 games, right? So...

00:59:34   Yes.

00:59:35   And months that these consoles have been out by that point.

00:59:37   Yeah, but that's the... I feel like that's the kind of game that I need right now. You

00:59:42   know, big, beautiful, colorful, lighthearted kind of game where you're just shooting things

00:59:49   and you're controlling like this cute little animal. Yes. That sort of game is for me right

00:59:55   now. I finished Spider-Man and that was great.

00:59:58   - Returnal is... - Even that Spider-Man, which was great, was building on a previous game.

01:00:03   - You know, like, there haven't been... - Yeah, it was more like a...

01:00:05   Returnal was like the first, I think, PlayStation 5 game that was made for the PlayStation 5

01:00:10   that wasn't a game somewhere else, you know?

01:00:12   - Yeah. - So there just hasn't been a lot of it.

01:00:14   It's not that there hasn't been none of it, but there just hasn't been a lot of it.

01:00:17   And so, you know, which is fine, and these consoles are around for a long time, and all

01:00:22   those games will exist eventually.

01:00:24   But it was something that I realized, which is like, I bought this PlayStation, and I

01:00:27   I've barely played anything on it because there just hasn't been any games that I've

01:00:32   been that interested in.

01:00:34   I've actually been playing more on Xbox lately because PS5 is great for the exclusives and

01:00:42   those are not here yet.

01:00:47   The Xbox is also great.

01:00:48   Game Pass is such an incredible deal.

01:00:51   So I'm gonna get wretched and clank but don't feel bad if you were unable to get a PS5.

01:00:57   because like it's gonna be like maybe for the holiday season.

01:01:02   Yes.

01:01:03   I mean, let's face it.

01:01:04   Honestly, we're all just waiting for the new Zelda on the Switch.

01:01:07   I mean, come on, you know, so.

01:01:09   Let's be real.

01:01:11   Yeah.

01:01:12   In conclusion, this Apple TV.

01:01:15   What's your conclusion?

01:01:17   You want my rating?

01:01:18   Sure.

01:01:19   I'm going to give the Apple TV 4K 2021 a five out of seven.

01:01:25   Which would be a big jump, maybe from like a 3, because I'm so excited about this eARC

01:01:32   feature.

01:01:33   It really has provided me with something that I want.

01:01:36   Really though, the Apple TV itself, there's just still some fundamental flaws with the

01:01:40   product, and Apple's working it out.

01:01:44   Because I'm also including tvOS as part of this score, because it's the whole package.

01:01:49   And TVOS still lives in this weird world where Apple wanted there to be more than just streaming

01:01:58   services.

01:02:00   And you notice that the box, the box for the new Apple TV, it has on the back of it a bunch

01:02:07   of logos for streaming services.

01:02:13   So on mine in the UK it has Apple TV+, Netflix, BBC iPlayer, YouTube, Prime Video and Disney

01:02:19   plus and says home to all of your entertainment. Do you know what it doesn't say? So many games.

01:02:24   Doesn't say that on there. So many apps, you can't wait to shop, right? And so I think

01:02:31   I said this in my tvOS review last year that it felt like Apple was truly starting to accept

01:02:39   the fact that what this device is for is streaming video. That's what it's for. And they want

01:02:45   it to be something more, but it isn't. And I feel like Apple understood this with the

01:02:50   Apple Watch way earlier and lent further into what people were using the Apple Watch for,

01:02:57   then I feel like Apple have leaned into what people are using the Apple TV for and I hope

01:03:02   that they continue to, and I'm looking forward to tvOS for that, to see if there's going

01:03:07   to be anything this year that suggests that to me.

01:03:10   And you know what else it can be?

01:03:12   A Thread Router.

01:03:13   Yeah.

01:03:14   But we're gonna talk about that in the future because I'm building a whole like thread setup at home.

01:03:20   Okay.

01:03:21   Let's talk about it next week maybe.

01:03:23   Alright, I'm intrigued. I'm intrigued about that.

01:03:25   Alright.

01:03:25   Well, probably not next week. Next week's the Ricky's but sometime in the future.

01:03:28   Well, at some point in the future.

01:03:30   Well, Myke, well done. Beautiful review.

01:03:33   Thank you.

01:03:33   The production quality has obviously gone way up.

01:03:36   Animations.

01:03:37   - The animations. - Compared to the animations,

01:03:39   everything, the table of contents,

01:03:40   like well done, well done.

01:03:42   The new remote, the new Apple TV,

01:03:44   5.5 and five out of seven.

01:03:47   So positive reviews overall.

01:03:49   - Very positive. - Yes.

01:03:52   - This episode of Connected is brought to you

01:03:54   by Pingdom from SolarWinds.

01:03:56   If you have a website, what purpose does it serve?

01:03:58   It could be driving people to your products,

01:04:00   collecting sales leads for your company,

01:04:03   or providing customer service with a contact form.

01:04:06   When these critical transactions fail,

01:04:08   you're losing out on business,

01:04:11   not to mention your users are having a bad experience.

01:04:15   But there's a solution,

01:04:16   transaction monitoring from Pingdom.

01:04:18   Starting at just $10 a month,

01:04:20   transaction monitoring runs checks 24 hours a day,

01:04:23   seven days a week,

01:04:25   and will alert you when cart checkout forms

01:04:28   or login pages fail

01:04:29   before they affect your customers and your business.

01:04:32   Pingdom will notify you the moment there's a failure

01:04:35   via SMS or email or even your favorite teamwork apps

01:04:39   like Slack or PagerDuty.

01:04:41   Pingdom will notify you the moment there's a failure

01:04:43   over SMS, email or in your favorite apps

01:04:46   like Slack, Ops Genie and PagerDuty.

01:04:49   Depending on what's being monitored

01:04:51   or the severity of the outage,

01:04:53   you can customize who's alerted

01:04:54   and how they get that notification.

01:04:57   Don't let your users discover a problem with your website.

01:04:59   You should be the first to know.

01:05:01   And it's super easy to get started.

01:05:03   Just go to pingdom.com/relayfm right now

01:05:07   for a 30-day free trial with no credit card required.

01:05:12   When you're ready to buy, use code connected at checkout

01:05:15   to get a huge 30% off your first invoice.

01:05:19   Our thanks to Pingdom from SolarWinds

01:05:21   for their support of the show and Relay FM.

01:05:24   - So there have been some rumors that the iPod Touch

01:05:27   may be like a phoenix from the flames

01:05:31   coming back this fall to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the iPod.

01:05:36   So this is something that Steve Moser of MacRumors has been referencing on Twitter with some

01:05:41   renders of what a device like this could look like.

01:05:44   Basically a very modern looking iPod Touch styled in the iPhone fashion.

01:05:50   I would imagine very thin, nice with some colours and a screen on the front, I don't

01:05:56   know whether it would be OLED or LCD but like an edge to edge screen, that kind of thing.

01:06:01   So this is going around, and this sent you on a little bit of a vision quest.

01:06:07   Yeah, so I was thinking about Apple Music's upcoming lossless and high-res lossless support.

01:06:16   So right now Apple hasn't of course rolled out those audio quality options yet, but I

01:06:24   was thinking like in the future when I'm going to be listening to, like when I'm going to

01:06:29   be testing Apple Music's lossless support. There will come a point where I will have

01:06:35   to choose between lossless and high res lossless. And obviously Apple says if you want to use

01:06:43   high res lossless you gotta plug in an external USB DAC and drive your headphones or other

01:06:49   equipment with that. And so I was thinking about this, like how is it going to work in

01:06:54   practice, that every time I want to switch between tiers, I just have to, like, between

01:07:00   audio settings, I need to manually go to Settings, Music, Audio Quality, and adjust it every

01:07:08   single time. Apple made no mention of, like, automatically switching your audio quality

01:07:14   when it detects, right, that a specific device has been plugged in. So I assume that is how

01:07:19   it's going to work. And I thought, man, that's going to be annoying. Like, every time I need

01:07:24   to go in there and make sure that I'm picking the right setting. And so I thought, well,

01:07:30   you know me, I thought, what if I had like a dedicated iOS device that was permanently

01:07:36   set to high res lossless, like the highest possible setting, so that every time I plugged

01:07:42   in my USB DAC, it would always be set like that, to high res lossless. And I thought,

01:07:48   "Well, I can probably use like a spare iPhone for that, that is only set up for music and

01:07:54   that is always set to the correct option." And then a light bulb went off in my brain.

01:07:59   I was like, "Wait a second. What if I've seen these rumors of the iPod touch? What

01:08:07   if the iPod touch is coming back as the ultimate music device?" And I sent you guys a message

01:08:17   this theory and we decided to talk about it, but basically my thinking would be, and this is totally

01:08:23   like speculation and theory, sort of like "what if", and my "what if" in this case is,

01:08:29   what if Apple is bringing indeed, you know, back the iPod touch back? Because the iPod touch has

01:08:36   been, the iPod turning 20 this year has always been the device for music lovers, right? And then

01:08:42   And then it became, I mean, the iPod Touch became a device for children, I think, right?

01:08:46   It became a games device.

01:08:48   And I think the key was like my first iPhone was the idea.

01:08:52   Right.

01:08:53   But yeah, I like the iPod's heritage is music.

01:08:59   Right.

01:09:00   It's always, it's music and Apple likes to say music is in our DNA and we love music,

01:09:05   you know, all those things.

01:09:07   But the iPod Touch, like you said, along the way sort of lost its soul as an iPod and became

01:09:12   the cheaper iOS device that you just give to a kid to play games.

01:09:17   But kids, these days it's easier to have older iPhones or just older iPads that are sticking

01:09:24   around for a long time and give those to a kid.

01:09:28   So why bring back the iPod Touch now?

01:09:30   Sure, the boring explanation could be Apple just figured they wanted to update the iPod

01:09:35   touch to provide customers with a cheaper point of entry into the iOS ecosystem. And

01:09:43   sure, I can get behind that, but I think my theory is more exciting.

01:09:51   Basically what I'm saying is nobody cares about the iPod touch anymore as it is, but

01:09:56   what if it came back with a new sort of music focus? Apple is obviously running into limitations

01:10:05   right now when it comes to the DAC that is built into its lightning connector, right?

01:10:11   That is preventing high-res playback directly on iOS devices.

01:10:16   But what if the iPod Touch came back as an iPod for music lovers again, and what if it

01:10:22   supported high-res lossless natively, had a powerful DAC built into it, and it had a

01:10:30   reason to exist again?

01:10:32   Hey Federico.

01:10:33   Yeah?

01:10:34   a headphone jack? Yeah, that could work. Right, do you think they would do that? If you were to brand

01:10:40   an iPod as the ultimate device for music again, why wouldn't you do it? Feels like you kind of

01:10:47   got it, right? I could even make the case for this iPod having USB-C instead of lightning,

01:10:54   because it's easier to connect to external equipment, right? And you could do the headphone

01:11:01   jack and it would fit like they I don't think people would say oh look at Apple after Johnny

01:11:08   Ive they're also bringing back the headphone jack no it's not an iPhone if this is a music

01:11:14   device then it makes sense to offer as many options as possible for you know music lovers

01:11:19   for people who are really into music who want to you know it could be I don't know that

01:11:24   it's a niche, but globally any niche can be big enough. And it becomes a way to sell more

01:11:32   Apple Music subscriptions, of course. It could be something that only Apple can do. You see

01:11:37   this external, like, I just bought a new USB DAC and it's from some Chinese company and

01:11:42   it's beautiful and it's totally, like, it does what it needs to do, I love the way it

01:11:48   sounds, but it's the opposite of a pleasant customer experience.

01:11:53   It's not very welcoming or usable.

01:11:55   No, no.

01:11:56   You've got this instruction manual

01:11:58   that is in Chinese and in English with a lot of typos.

01:12:02   And it's like, there's a lot of these devices

01:12:04   that you can buy.

01:12:05   But I could see the iPod, an iPod with USB-C

01:12:09   that had plenty of internal storage,

01:12:12   maybe even a headphone jack.

01:12:16   That could be an exciting device for music people.

01:12:19   I know I would get one in like three seconds.

01:12:23   And, I don't know, maybe, again, the reality is a lot more boring.

01:12:28   Maybe it's just, "Oh hey, we forgot about the iPod Touch, I guess it's time for an update again."

01:12:36   And maybe it's just that, but on the 20th anniversary, I mean, come on.

01:12:41   Do the nice and exciting and bold move, right?

01:12:46   I would never even entertain this thought if Apple Music Lossless didn't exist, right?

01:12:53   Where like, they're gonna have this...

01:12:56   Some parts of it, like these devices may never...

01:13:00   Like the iPhone may never support the Lossless at the full quality, right?

01:13:05   And isn't it weird that Apple is saying, "Oh, but for this brand new feature of our totally

01:13:10   awesome service Apple Music, you need an external USB DAC."

01:13:15   I don't know.

01:13:16   It just, there's something off about that.

01:13:18   I don't know what I think about this, but I don't feel like I would rule out the possibility

01:13:24   of it being more music focused, right, because of this.

01:13:28   I think it could make a lot of sense.

01:13:30   I don't know who they're selling it to, like is it just to audio files or like who is the

01:13:35   market for this product?

01:13:38   Like does the market maybe not exist yet, but would maybe exist if Apple put together

01:13:42   the right product?

01:13:43   I don't know, like would this run iOS and take advantage of apps and all that kind of stuff?

01:13:50   Sure, I think so, I think so.

01:13:53   I think it would just be, again, nothing would change in terms of like it wouldn't be a separate OS or anything,

01:13:59   it would be an iOS device just with different capabilities from an iPhone when it came to high resolution music.

01:14:07   There's plenty of... look, the world is full of companies making external USB DAC devices.

01:14:15   Some of them are really beautiful, some of them have this wild sort of alien designs

01:14:21   that like... you know, sometimes these devices are kind of like the modern Wi-Fi routers.

01:14:27   They have all kinds of shapes and like, "Oh, it looks... it's triangular shaped because

01:14:34   it looks powerful, it looks like a spaceship, those types of... you know what I mean. You

01:14:40   know? It looks like a flying spider type deal. I feel like Apple could make a real, more

01:14:48   approachable solution for Apple Music. I'm not specifically talking about like Apple

01:14:55   is making an external USB DAC that you can use with all kinds of equipment. You gotta

01:15:00   realize it's still Apple, they need to sell more Apple devices and service subscriptions.

01:15:06   So this would just be for Apple Music. That's the kind of product that I'm imagining. But

01:15:12   I feel like an iPod touch with USB-C, a headphone jack and high-res lossless playback natively,

01:15:18   it will be a real compelling product.

01:15:19   They're going to capture a market with it, and that market might be more than the people

01:15:24   currently buying iPod touches.

01:15:26   exciting to think about it it'll likely never happen just like the iPad mini but

01:15:32   if it does you heard it here first sure you know if it does it's I want a royalty

01:15:38   you're a digital profit yes I'm gonna go with that this episode of connected is

01:15:44   brought to you by Express VPN out in the real world if you're looking for privacy

01:15:49   you can just close a door but online we leave doors open everywhere we go using

01:15:54   the internet with ExpressVPN is like never closing the door behind you. Your ISP, Comcast,

01:16:00   Verizon, whoever, knows every single website you visit and if they want to they can sell

01:16:04   this information to ad companies and other tech giants. ExpressVPN creates a secure encrypted

01:16:10   tunnel between your device and the internet so that your online activity can't be seen

01:16:14   by anyone. I've been using ExpressVPN for years. It gives me peace of mind that what

01:16:19   I do on the internet is private and it works fantastically. It's super fast, it

01:16:24   doesn't slow you down, and it's really easy to get started with it. It runs on

01:16:28   phones and laptops, even routers. And the best part is ExpressVPN is as easy as

01:16:33   closing that door we keep referencing because you just fire up the app, click

01:16:38   one button, and you're protected. And ExpressVPN is the world's number one

01:16:42   rated VPN by CNET, WIRED, The Verge, and countless others. So if you're like me and

01:16:47   think your online activity is your business, secure yourself by visiting expressvpn.com/connected

01:16:54   today. Go to expresvpn.com/connected and you can get an extra three months for free at

01:17:04   expressvpn.com/connected.

01:17:07   This may be, Federico, our last one feature each. I mean, it depends on how long the Ricky's

01:17:13   take next week. This is our recurring segment where we pick a feature that we'd like to

01:17:18   see added to one of Apple's platforms at WWDC. So this will either be the last round of one

01:17:23   feature each or we might do it next week because then after that, well we know everything that's

01:17:27   going to be added to Apple's platforms at WWDC because WWDC will have happened. So would

01:17:32   you like to kick off with your one feature that you would like to see added to a platform

01:17:37   for WWDC? I'm going big, I'm going bold. Is this a Ricky? I'm going for the unexpected.

01:17:43   - Yeah, so Ricky, Ricky won, okay.

01:17:45   - I'm gonna say I wanna see a menu bar on the iPad.

01:17:49   I wanna see a menu bar for iPadOS.

01:17:52   - Is this just you talking about shelves again?

01:17:54   - No. - Okay.

01:17:56   - No. (laughing)

01:17:58   In fact, it's not mentioned.

01:17:59   - But now you say that.

01:18:00   - No, no, no, no, no.

01:18:02   I kind of moved on from that.

01:18:05   I feel like I'm now not missing the shelf anymore.

01:18:09   - Right.

01:18:10   - Like I feel like I finally accepted our breakup, you know?

01:18:13   Sort of like the meme, friendship ended with shelf, now menu bar is my best friend.

01:18:21   So, I was thinking about this, like, I remember a couple of years ago, Vidit, the designer

01:18:33   of the excellent dictionary app Lookup for Apple platforms.

01:18:39   We did put together this concept of a menu bar on iPadOS.

01:18:47   And the idea was of this menu bar that, you know, it's a menu bar.

01:18:51   Like on the Mac, it had different menu options like File, Edit, View, Window, that sort of

01:18:58   idea.

01:18:59   But reimagined for iPadOS, obviously.

01:19:02   And you know me, this is the kind of thing that I like to see.

01:19:04   taking an existing idea and sort of remixing it for the modern OS. I started thinking about

01:19:12   this concept again. And by the way, if you remember a tweet by someone, but it's an old

01:19:21   tweet, there's a really easy way to find it in the official Twitter app, because you have

01:19:27   access to historical search. You can do "from" colon "iMyke", for example, and then you just

01:19:34   type in whatever you remember, like a keyword that you remember, and it shows you all the

01:19:39   tweets that that person specifically sent containing that keyword.

01:19:43   So you would just type in "menu" and probably come up, right?

01:19:47   I did from colon "viditb", which is the username, "iPad menu bar", and I found the tweet.

01:19:56   Pro tip, tg_tip.

01:19:58   Yes.

01:19:59   I was thinking that one of the biggest issues on iPadOS, and especially for pro apps, is

01:20:06   making all of their features discoverable enough. This is a problem that Apple itself

01:20:13   is facing a lot of the time. How do you expose all these powerful functionalities that an

01:20:19   app has? Especially if you're talking about a pro app, such as, for example, LumaFusion,

01:20:25   All these menus and nested menus and additional options that you can have.

01:20:30   And so in iPadOS 14 developers, they have some tools that they can use.

01:20:37   There's pull-down menus, which will be the menus that you get when you right-click on

01:20:42   a certain button in the title bar.

01:20:45   You can do sidebars, of course.

01:20:46   You can have a sidebar.

01:20:47   You can have multiple columns.

01:20:50   Well, it feels like when it comes to menus, when it comes to presenting options that can

01:20:56   go multiple levels deep, that becomes a challenge on iPadOS.

01:21:02   And it's difficult to achieve that sort of complex presentation of options.

01:21:09   And so a lot of developers, what they do, they just implemented their own menus.

01:21:14   And so you get these pro apps, and each of them has its own custom take on this.

01:21:18   LumaFusion looks a certain way, Adobe's apps look a certain way, and so forth.

01:21:24   On the other end of the spectrum, you have keyboard shortcuts, right?

01:21:27   Sure, those are possible on iPad, right?

01:21:29   They have been for a long time.

01:21:31   And there's even a way to discover them, right?

01:21:34   You just hold down the Command key, and you get the little cheat sheet in the middle of

01:21:39   the screen.

01:21:41   But have you seen what happens to that popup when you have a lot of commands?

01:21:46   It depagenates across multiple pages.

01:21:49   Yeah, it's upsetting.

01:21:51   It's upsetting.

01:21:52   And you get apps like MindNode or OmniFocus, for example, and you hold down Command, and

01:21:59   it's like you're finding yourself having to scroll across five or six pages of these keyboard

01:22:05   commands and none of them are grouped, none of them are contextual for the thing you're

01:22:11   doing.

01:22:12   It's all very confusing.

01:22:13   It's like, "Wait, what am I looking at here?"

01:22:16   So I was thinking about this and I realized, you know what, Apple actually fixed this,

01:22:21   decades ago, on the Mac, with the Menu Bar.

01:22:26   It was a consistent location on screen that allowed you to put together, to group commands

01:22:32   based on the category of the command.

01:22:35   Those commands could be used both via touch and via keyboard shortcuts, because when you

01:22:40   go over an option in the Menu Bar on the Mac, you can see the associated keyboard shortcut,

01:22:46   And that feels like a great fit for the iPad, right?

01:22:48   You can use something via touch or via the keyboard.

01:22:51   Yeah, it's a really nice way to learn.

01:22:54   You know, I've always really enjoyed the help.

01:22:59   You know, you've got to help and just type search and you just try and find the command

01:23:03   and then it shows you where it is, it highlights it where it is in the menu bar and then a

01:23:07   lot of the time it will have the keyboard command.

01:23:09   It's like, "Great, now I know how to do this forever."

01:23:11   It's a really just fantastic feature on Mac OS.

01:23:15   And so I started thinking, what if the menu bar was reimagined for iPadOS?

01:23:20   What if it became a UI element that maybe you only see when you're using the pointer?

01:23:26   Or maybe not. I don't know about that, but what if you had this menu at the top of the screen

01:23:33   that allowed you to see all of the supported commands when you're working on an iPad?

01:23:38   Maybe, and again, the idea of rethinking an old idea for the modern reality of iPadOS,

01:23:47   what if this menu bar was also how you could discover custom shortcuts that you made in

01:23:52   the shortcuts app?

01:23:54   Why do we have to run every shortcut from the share sheet all the time?

01:23:59   Imagine a persistent, like one of the options in the menu bar just saying shortcuts and

01:24:05   you can click it and you can...

01:24:07   What if it's just a shortcut? What if the menu bar is actually like a new extension type in the shortcuts app?

01:24:13   And you say make this shortcut available in the menu bar and you see that right away

01:24:17   You don't have to go through picking the shortcuts and all of that. You just see it

01:24:21   you know, one of the ones that I use a lot is to

01:24:23   Take a PDF and save it to a folder in Dropbox

01:24:29   Which gets pulled into the app that I use for expenses and receipt tracking

01:24:32   Yeah, imagine if I could adapt that to be like take what you currently see turn that into a PD

01:24:39   I may not be so great. Oh my god, if I could just do that anywhere on the system

01:24:42   I'd be so happy and and what if like the menu bar could be used somehow

01:24:48   To help when it comes to slide over for example, right?

01:24:52   You have all these extra utilities that you can shove on the side

01:24:56   But the gesture to activate those is kind of weird

01:24:59   What if you could activate slide-over apps with an indicator from the menu bar?

01:25:05   And I'm gonna go even border.

01:25:06   What if slide-over apps were the new menu bar apps?

01:25:12   So you could tap a little thing and bring down basically an iPhone view.

01:25:16   When you think about it, a menu bar app on the Mac is kind of like a slide-over app.

01:25:20   It's this tiny window that appears.

01:25:23   And we do have tiny windows on iPad.

01:25:26   They're called slide-over apps.

01:25:28   basically the same idea. And the last thing would be, you know, on Big Sur we've seen this new Control Center

01:25:34   that

01:25:37   supports multiple accessories, of course, and those can be sort of taken out of Control Center and

01:25:44   made available in the main menu bar. And that Control Center on the Mac is obviously very much touch friendly on

01:25:50   Big Sur, the way that it's laid out and designed.

01:25:53   What if the same could be done on iPad where showing control center on iPad is really weird

01:25:58   It's barely acceptable on iPhone where you have to swipe down from the right side of the notch

01:26:03   But an iPad it just doesn't make sense. You're swiping on a

01:26:07   Non, you know on a non specific area of the screen just along the top right corner sure

01:26:13   Okay, but what if control center was actually always accessible from the menu bar?

01:26:18   I don't know

01:26:19   I feel like there's a quality to the idea of a menu bar that even though it's an old idea, I think there's something

01:26:27   inherently good about it. And maybe it's one of those ideas like a pointer, right, that can be reimagined for

01:26:36   2021 and iPads. So that would be my wish.

01:26:41   I'm into it. I'm into it. I love it. I mean this is again

01:26:48   - And yeah, like look, I want,

01:26:52   we're both asking for this now.

01:26:54   The time has passed, we've gotten to where we are.

01:26:58   iPad OS needs to get closer to Mac OS, it just does now.

01:27:01   And you don't have to copy it,

01:27:04   but you sure have to take inspiration from it

01:27:07   and push the operating system.

01:27:08   I don't want, and you don't want,

01:27:11   the iPad to look like the Mac.

01:27:16   what we want is exactly what you mentioned earlier

01:27:19   that you said on App Stories,

01:27:21   take these conventions and make new versions of them

01:27:25   that fit this platform.

01:27:27   - Conventions is a great word.

01:27:29   These are conventions.

01:27:30   There are some ideas that even if they were first

01:27:33   designed in 1994, if it's still good, it's good.

01:27:38   Like a power button on a TV remote.

01:27:41   So if you can do that on a TV remote,

01:27:43   why can you not do that on iPadOS?

01:27:46   And it's also worth just saying like for the record the Mac is not the only

01:27:51   platform that even Apple's made that has come up with these great conventions

01:27:54   that have found their way into other places. You know I'm thinking stuff like

01:27:57   natural and inertial scrolling right found its way in the iPhone first and

01:28:02   has moved across all different types of things because you know what it just

01:28:05   feels really nice it's like it's a nice way to work so these things have

01:28:09   stretched out over time to different different platforms. It maybe isn't the

01:28:14   best example but is an example which is something they just they they they

01:28:18   stretch out right. My feature that I would like is shortcuts on the Mac. Yes

01:28:22   okay. So this has been something I've been sorely missing when using the Mac

01:28:27   more because there are some simple actions that would be so much faster for

01:28:31   me to perform if I had access to shortcuts even in like a little widget

01:28:36   than I do trying to access things otherwise so like setting timers in

01:28:42   Timery, you know, I can have these little actions that set a timer and open a couple of documents and it's so fast and easy

01:28:49   On my Mac, but on my iPad and on my iPhone but on the Mac

01:28:54   It's like seven clicks that I have to do right or things like homekit related actions homekit on the Mac and homekit in general

01:29:01   It's like the home app is slow but shortcuts if you make some shortcuts form

01:29:05   It's really fast

01:29:06   like if things just happen

01:29:07   Like there are a lot of little shortcuts that I run all the time that I'm super used to

01:29:11   That I don't have access to at the Mac. There are tools like keyboard maestro better touch tool even

01:29:18   AppleScript automator all of these things that exist that I could learn but you know what? They're all

01:29:24   Way more complicated and clunky. Yeah, then shortcuts is I have already put the time into learning how to use shortcuts

01:29:33   shortcuts and I've understood it and I can get it to do things and I think in a shortcuts

01:29:37   way of doing things I'm comfortable with it. Apple makes it. I would like them to put it

01:29:43   on their own platform. You know like it's not like I'm asking for shortcuts on Windows

01:29:47   right like I want shortcuts on the Mac. I don't want to have to learn a new way of doing

01:29:55   things like I've tried very cursory like to do things with Keyboard Maestro and it's like

01:30:00   "oh yeah I mean this will work but like don't move that window at all or it's not

01:30:05   gonna work anymore because you're like simulating where as a click happened and

01:30:09   I'm like I don't like this" but shortcuts will do these things for me

01:30:12   easily because it's all built into the system and it's just behind the scenes

01:30:16   the system is just poking in to the you know like that like it's the app and the

01:30:21   system talking to each other and so like I can do this thing so you're able to

01:30:26   take this thing and do something with it without me being the app that's open

01:30:30   Like that kind of exchange that's what I want. I feel like shortcuts is very clearly apples

01:30:35   New way of allowing users to make their devices do things for them

01:30:40   It's very user friendly and I think Mac users should also have access to these tools

01:30:46   Especially as things like catalysts and all that continues to become a thing

01:30:51   I want to see this and because again that will also be if even if it's just catalyst and and Swift UI apps only or whatever

01:30:58   I wouldn't want it to be that but just imagine it's that.

01:31:02   It would maybe be another thing to push people towards that style of development which Apple

01:31:07   I think would clearly prefer people to be looking at their future tools.

01:31:11   I really want to see shortcuts for the Mac and I hope that this is the year that they

01:31:17   do it.

01:31:18   Yeah, I really hope you're right.

01:31:20   This episode Connected is brought to you by Top 4 from Relay FM.

01:31:24   This show is so much fun.

01:31:25   is hosted by Tiff and Marco Arment.

01:31:28   They make top four lists out of anything.

01:31:30   If you just look through their archives on the website,

01:31:32   some really wild stuff, instant coffee, card games,

01:31:36   TV couples, pop tarts, there's really nothing off limits.

01:31:40   It is delightful and infuriating all at once.

01:31:44   So indulge in the randomness and listen for yourself

01:31:47   at relay.fm/topfour or search for top four

01:31:52   wherever you get your podcast.

01:31:53   - So that's that.

01:31:54   Next week we're going to be doing the Ricky's.

01:31:56   Steven will be back and we'll be locked in competition and challenge.

01:32:00   And we'll, I don't know, maybe we'll crown a new winner or a continued winner the week

01:32:06   after during WWDC.

01:32:08   We'll find out.

01:32:09   If you would like to find links and information about this episode, you go to relay.fm/connected/347

01:32:13   or you can find them in your podcast app of choice.

01:32:18   I would like to thank Memberfall and Pingdom and ExpressVPN for their support of this episode.

01:32:23   And I'd also like to thank everybody who supports us with connected pro if you would like longer ad free episodes of connected every single

01:32:31   Week just go to get connected pro co and sign up

01:32:35   Thank you so much to everybody that has if you'd like to find Federico online

01:32:39   You can go to max stories dot net and he is at for teachy vit I CCI

01:32:43   I am at I Myke I am y ke and Steven is at is mh and you can find Steven at five to a pixels dotnet

01:32:50   Federico I have a question for you. Oh

01:32:53   Okay. What is your favorite kind of beverage?

01:32:57   Huh?

01:32:59   So by beverage you mean water, right? No

01:33:02   No, so not water. It can be water if water is your favorite beverage. Oh, well, it's my most consumed beverage. But is it your favorite?

01:33:11   Tough choice. I mean water would be super boring. This would not be a good first date if he's like "Hey, so what's your favorite drink?"

01:33:19   water, we're gonna have a good time. So you're thinking like, that's the question, right?

01:33:25   What's your favorite drink? Yeah, it could be alcohol, could be not alcohol, it could be anything.

01:33:30   How am I supposed to choose? Like, my top five, I could put water, coffee,

01:33:36   orange juice, wine, and some kind of like cocktail, for example. Do you have a favorite wine?

01:33:43   Chardonnay. Ooh, look at you now. What about your favorite cocktail?

01:33:49   I'm sorry but I'm stuck in my cocktail tastes at like teenager cocktails. I really like

01:34:02   a Long Island Iced Tea.

01:34:04   Long Island Iced Tea. I mean they are nice but it's like I am 19 years old. I'm going

01:34:10   out. I want the alcoholic drink that has all of the alcohol in it please. Thank you very

01:34:16   much Barkeep. Long Island Iced Tea for me.

01:34:18   Or, well, let me try and be a little more mature. A Mojito?

01:34:22   Oh, yeah, that's better. Well, not better. It is definitely… It is different.

01:34:27   It is better.

01:34:28   I mean, I don't want to say… Like, if you're a Long Island Iced Tea person, you

01:34:30   go for it. Like, you love your Long Island Iced Teas. But you could maybe say that a

01:34:34   Mojito is something you would get… It's more of a refined taste, I think. You've

01:34:40   got to be…

01:34:41   Yeah, it's a little more, you know, refined. Yes, refined, maybe. I would say… So, alcoholic

01:34:48   drinks yes mojito most like very nice yeah all right but also I'm like I'm a

01:34:55   wine person so yeah you mean you are Italian so yeah yeah good question

01:35:01   though I cannot pick a single that's the fun of it thanks so much for listening

01:35:05   to this week's episode connected we'll be back next time until then say goodbye

01:35:08   Federico are you there to cheerio